Healthline Blogs

Birth Plans: More General Thoughts

In my last post, I began a discussion of “what constitutes a good birth plan” in response to comments following a previous post. I addressed general issues and, after giving some more thought to the matter as I was falling asleep last night, I wo...

What is Aneuploidy?

Recently, we did a routine ultrasound on a 16 year old in her first trimester to simply confirm her “dates” and found, incidentally, a baby with a large fluid collection on the back of its neck called a cystic hygroma. When this is identified in ...

Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy - Reprise

On January 10 and 13, 2007, I wrote a couple of posts related to intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP), otherwise know as 'obstetric cholestasis.' ICP affects 1-2 of every 1000 pregnancies and is more common in certain subpopulations around ...

Invasive Diagnostic Testing after Reassuring First Trimester Screening for Aneuploidy?

Attached is a comment from a reader who has written to me before because of a history of recurrent early pregnancy losses. She is now pregnant, has successfully gotten through first trimester, and has had very reassuring combined risk assessment f...

Near Term Birth: No Place for Complacency

Late preterm, or “near-term,” birth is defined as delivery between 34 and 36 completed weeks’ gestation. According to National Center for Health Statistics in 2002, approximately 60% of all preterm births were in this category. The increase in nea...

Thanks to Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei for Great Grand Rounds

My belated (I was at the beach too!) thanks to Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei for his edition of "Grand Rounds at the Beach" published this week in his Eye on DNA website. What a great collection! Thanks for including a link to my guidelines for the manageme...

Drugs and Fetal Development: Focus, Paroxetine

Antidepressants are among the medications most commonly prescribed to young women; and, of those available, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are among the most popular. It is estimated that as many as 2-3% of all women in their chil...

Early Pregnancy Loss - 2

...When things had gotten quieter in the room, I went back to talk with the couple about our findings (see my last post). I could see the thousand questions she had on her lips and told them, “Let me just talk with you for a few minutes, and then...

Contraception - A Basic Human Right

Outside the San Diego convention center, a group of ‘protesters’ continually harangued attendees at the recent ACOG Annual Meeting as they crossed the street to return to their hotels. The protesters carried large placards, displaying the body par...

Hypertensive Disorders in Pregnancy - 1

It’s been a BUSY week. I have been trying to keep up with responses to the many comments (and thank you for reading!), but haven’t had much time to provide new information! June is always hectic as the Chief Residents pack up their things to go an...

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